1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal cell having spacer walls formed between a pair of electrode panels and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of Related Art
A liquid crystal cell having spacer walls formed between a pair of electrode panels has been known hitherto. The spacer walls serving as spacers for forming a cell gap between a pair of electrode panels and for giving more mechanical strength to the cell are usually made of photo-sensitive resin called a photo-resist. An example of this kind of cell is disclosed in JP-B2-2-36930, in which chairal liquid crystal is used. The spacer walls are formed on an orientation layer made on one of the electrode panels. A photo-resist layer is coated on the orientation layer and preliminarily baked. Then, a pattern of the spacer walls is formed in a photolithography and developing process. After rubbing the surfaces of the orientation layers on both electrode panels, both panels are overlapped with each other, thereby forming a single cell. Then, the cell is baked while imposing pressure thereon, and finally a space formed in the cell is filled with liquid crystal.
In the developing process, photo-resist layer covering a pixel area other than the spacer walls is intended to be removed completely. However, it is unavoidable that some thickness of the photo-resist layer is left on the area covering the pixels. Such a residual photo-resist layer reduces orientating ability of the orientation layer, and accordingly the liquid crystal in the cell is not properly oriented. This results in a lower display contrast of the liquid crystal cell because luminance of the pixels at a dark mode is increased by the improper orientation of the liquid crystal.